I was trying to train Mr. Darcy last night. He was much too interested in jumping around and exploring the new boxes I had put out for them. I was getting really really frustrated. It seemed like he was teasing me, he would come by do a couple of touches and then run off again. Of course, this wasn't the case, but it sure felt like it was.
He was just so fun of ENERY last night.
So, instead, I decided just to watch him. I was amazed at his determination to get somewhere. I knew this before, but I never observed how powerful it was. If he wanted to jump on a box, or crawl between something gosh darn it he was going to do it! Maybe this is the reason why he wasn't that interested in training... it wasn't challening enough to him in a way that was interesting to him. All of this made me think that maybe in order for, in particular Mr. Darcy, to really enjoy training I needed to challenge him in this manner.
For example, with touch maybe putting my hand just out of reach so he can still touch it but he really has to think about how to go about doing it. Other ideas started swimming through my head like teaching him to wall surf on cue or crawl into a tight corner. Watching and really observing what he was doing was definetly a good decision. I just hope I can channel that kind of determination into the training.
I will start off by making the touches more difficult for him. For example, raising my hand so he actually has to jump to touch it, or putting my hand on a box so he has to go onto the box... exct. I'm curious to see how this will turn out. I think there is going to be a fine line between making it too hard and too easy.
I think you are on to something!
Good for you NayNay for listening to your emotion of frustration and making a change in your perspective. Wow!
I think that what you are thinking is certianly true for some individuals. I know many school children who find school work just plain too easy for them to focus on. They usually get referred for ADHD evaluations when what they really need is for an adult to observe what they are doing for play, and then observe what the individual finds reinforcing (mental or physical challenge) and then encorporate that information back into the teaching/learning situation.
Not every individual needs this because most teachers are shaped into giving reinforcers that are reinforcing to most of the individuals in a group of children, people or animals. But since Chins are fairly unusual as household pets, you don't have a huge backlog of information about what they usually like. This can be a real advantace to Mr. Darcy if in fact he is unusual compared to most Chins. In any population, one is going to find variation.
Observation is so powerful!
RB